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Critical Thinking Module 3 : Managerial Approaches

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Critical Thinking Module 3: Managerial Approaches
During my 18 years of working for Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer there were two production plant managers. Each plant manager practiced differing styles of management and had different approaches for plant production. Through analysis of the reading and with further research, I believe each manager practiced approaches with similarities and some modifications to the historical approaches of the assigned materials.
This paper will analyze and discuss each of the manager’s approach. The three management approaches that will be discussed in detail within the context of the manager who used them are Industrial Humanist: Motivation and Organizational Behavior (Pryor, Humphreys, Taneja, & Toombs, …show more content…

There were more similarities of this manager to the Industrial Humanist approach than differences. The emphasis placed on trying to ensure the employees had job satisfaction was similar to the approach advanced by Industrial Humanist as cited by Pryor et, al (2011). The plant manager was a big advocate of the principles of minimal direct supervision on each line. This was an effective way to manage because the employees felt a sense of empowerment given by the plant manager for the autonomy given to production lines to self-direct their activities after being given the daily production objectives. This approach of giving employees a sense of empowerment is in line with Industrial Humanist, Argyris and Bennis as cited by Pryor et, al (2011).
During this manager’s tenure at the plant extrinsic and intrinsic factors defined by Herzberg and cited by Pryor et al (2011) were in balance. The relations between management and the union was generally not contentious. Therefore, contract negotiations were not perceived by employees as a stressful or anxiety ridden period and generally. The compensation packages the company was willing to extend to the hourly employees was considered as

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